


By Any Other Name

by harmonyfb



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Maybe the Doctor shouldn't get emotionally involved with his pets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 14:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2551001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmonyfb/pseuds/harmonyfb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knew better than to get attached.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By Any Other Name

He thought things were going pretty well, on the whole. New girl settling in, and she was smart and challenging and a bit sharpish, just the pricking he needed to get back in the saddle. Reminded him more of Romana and less of certain other people, and that was a good thing. Romana's loss...well, that was an old wound, indeed, well scabbed-over.

But it had to happen sooner or later. Just bad luck that it slipped out when it did. He'd been through enough regenerations - well, no, enough companions, if he was being honest with himself - to know better than to call names during kisses. Actually, he knew better than to kiss them at all, but there they were, danger narrowly averted once more, and she was fairly humming with adrenalin and covered in sticky sweet syrup from the jam pot that was flung in their haste to escape a very deadly tea party, and he'd been standing so near, and it just happened.

Just kept happening, as a matter of fact. Her body was lean and smooth, beautiful skin like silk, and when she slipped her heated fingers up his shirt-tail, he couldn't help but moan. He just didn't realize it had been a word.

"What did you just call me?" Martha's eyes narrowed in on him with deadly precision.

For a minute, he truly didn't know. His mind ran so hot these days that sometimes his mouth was at least three or four thoughts ahead of it. Had he plucked some name out of the distant past, called her Liz or Barbara or god forbid, Flavia? Took him a second to catch up. Oh, _hell and damnation_.

There was stammering, and back-pedaling, none of which did any good. Martha'd been with him long enough to know pure moonshine when he spoke it.

"I won't be a substitute for her", she declared, and slammed the door on her way to her room.

 _You're all a substitute for somebody_ , he wanted to say - even the first girl he'd kissed had been a way to erase the line that divided him from everyone else. Wasn't fair to them, but there it was. That's why they all left, in the end - no one wanted to be the one that you settled for.

He'd never had trouble compartmentalizing it before; one left, another took their place, and he forgot the old name before the new one was on his lips. With trembling hands he straightened his tie, wiped his lips. If one name could linger, the rest might tumble out, as well, memories bad and good and painful and ideal, and all best forgotten.

He remembered the look on Martha's face, mirrored a hundred times over in his memories. He'd have a new name to remember soon, and another to forget.


End file.
